1. Field of Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method and system for demodulating data and more particularly to a method and system utilizing the capabilities of a reconfigurable datapath for the demodulation of antenna data containing information in multiple protocols.
2. Status of the Prior Art
Currently, wireless communication systems, such as CDMA, are based upon multiple users sharing a common spectrum. The data for the different users may be coded according to different standards (different protocols). The base stations for the wireless communication system receive the data for all of the users through a common input. Each base station demodulates the data with decoding techniques corresponding to the coding defining the standard that separates the multiple users.
In order to properly demodulate the data, the wireless communication base station uses specialized hardware for each algorithm and protocol in the demodulation process. Multiple users and multiple protocols are accommodated by running specialized hardware in parallel. Dedicated hardware for each protocol runs a respective algorithm to demodulate the data. The hardware for each protocol are run in parallel to demodulate the data from the common input.
The use of specialized hardware for the demodulation of each protocol adds considerable expense to the system. The dedicated hardware must be designed, tested and fabricated for each protocol. Additionally, the size of the system will increase as each piece of hardware is added for each protocol to be demodulated. The adaptability of the system is also compromised due to the fact that new hardware must be designed and installed in order to implement new protocols.
The present invention addresses the above-mentioned deficiencies in prior art systems by providing a method and system of demodulating data from multiple users using multiple protocols defined in multiple standards with a dynamically reconfigurable datapath. The present invention provides a method and system whereby data for multiple users using multiple protocols (standards) is demodulated by using dynamically reconfigurable hardware with repeatedly read-buffered data antenna input data.